


Cold Front

by Jukedogg



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Abusive Parents, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Canon, Tags Contain Spoilers, Transphobia, i guess there's technically one oc in this?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-19
Updated: 2018-05-25
Packaged: 2019-05-08 21:15:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14702472
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jukedogg/pseuds/Jukedogg
Summary: Storms of all kinds are building and, eventually, they will break.





	1. Chapter 1

Another rainy, muggy, humid, _awful_ day. July sucked.  
The crowded stations were nearly unbearable, let alone the packed cars, and Ryuji found himself regretting following Shujin’s dress code. The shirt wasn’t bad, but one would think that maybe, just maybe, they’d let students wear shorts. Even Ann, fiddling with her hair next to him, looked uncomfortable though, so maybe heat was just shitty heat. As the train pulled into the station, both found themselves fighting for spots as close to the air vents as possible.  
The sun was barely up and everything smelled like sweat already.  
They managed to squeeze into a seat that hadn’t been tainted with body odor by some miracle. Ann pulled a fashion magazine out and focused on it heavily (or pretended to, at least) while Ryuji fiddled with his phone. He tapped out a quick message and hit send, then spent the next couple of minutes obsessively checking for replies.

“He’ll reply when he replies,” Ann mused, flicking through pages at such a rapid pace that he had to wonder if she was even looking at them anymore.  
“How can you even bear to read right now?” Ryuji groaned, shifting and leaning his head back against the window. He was jostled and bumped against it every so often, but he welcomed the distraction from the constant underlying shifting and shuffling of the passengers and the heat and the small ache in his heart that increased in intensity with each passing second that his phone didn’t buzz. “Have you heard from Ren today?”  
Ann looked up from her magazine and then down at the phone in her friend’s hands with a small, worried furrow on her brow. “No. He hasn’t sent you anything?” The words were barely out of her before the tell-tale pings sounded from Ryuji’s closed hand. He flipped his phone open and sighed in relief.  
“He overslept. Not feelin’ well.”   
“You worry about him too much sometimes.”  
“Yeah, I know. I just… I miss him. A lot.” And despite the message, there was still anxiety within Ryuji, coupled now with a small sense of unease. Something about Ren’s text seemed off and he couldn't figure out what it was. The grammar? The wording? The timing? Those could all be explained away with sickness, though.  
Before he had too long to ponder, however, the train began to slow.   
  


**Ren - Today at 07:32** **  
** oberslept and sick

**Ryuji - Today at 7:47** ****  
drink lots (not alcohol)   
stay home if u feel rly bad   
train’s pullin up, i’ll talk to u @ lunch   
love u, be safe  
  
****_NEW MESSAGES_

**Ren - Today at 7:48** **  
** will try, love you too

  
He tabbed out of the app with a small smile and stepped between the doors onto the bustling station platform. Ann kept up her fanning and slumped against the wall beside the escalators.   
Ryuji ignored her and immediately moved up onto the stairway, taking two at a time until he felt the sun on his face. Ann huffed up beside him, blush crawling up to the glare she was shooting at him. He bit back a grin.  
“Your acting has gotten so much better. It’s incredible, really. You _almost_ make a convincin’ lobster.”  
“Shut it. It’s hot, I’m pale, of course I’m gonna get red.”  
“Oh shit, wait, lemme tell Yusuke--”  
“Do not.” She slapped at him with the magazine. “Come on, if we get there early we can grab something to drink.”  
  
“Don’t forget to sign up for clubs, kids. Right now, the basketball, English, and --”  
This was so boring. They went through this same shit every year, they didn’t need reminders to sign up for _clubs_ of all things. Ryuji wanted to scream. He hated school, always had. There was no reason for them to learn most of what they had to. It was just lessons on how to parrot back the right answer until they all inevitably forgot about it the next semester and had to be taught again. And again. And _fucking again._ Waste of time, waste of money, waste of everything.

But he’d promised his mom he’d make an effort this year. She didn’t  _ know _ he’d made that promise, of course, because she’d fallen asleep on their couch while some stupid home improvement show was showing off  _ cabinet soffits  _ and  _ bidets _ . What the fuck even  _ was _ a soffit? Who  _ needed _ a bidet? He didn’t know and he suspected his mom didn’t care but those shows were good for taking her mind off of... Everything. They weren’t doing horribly, financially, but they weren’t doing great either. That’s why he promised her he’d do better, he’d do everything he could to make life easier on her. He owed her that much, at the very least.

He fought the instinct to reach for his phone, to block the droning tones of Mr. Ushimaru’s announcements, to block the oppressive feeling of so many bodies in one space, to block the nagging sensation that something was wrong. He didn’t even realize before he thought about it but-

Something was indeed very wrong.

His phone was ringing, Ren’s number and name flashing in the caller ID. Luckily the ringer wasn’t on, but that didn’t stop Ryuji from grabbing it and hiding it, as if anyone could tell or cared enough while it was hidden by his desk. Ushimaru hadn’t even looked up and everyone was still half-asleep. He thought about excusing himself to the restroom but three years in this homeroom had taught him that no one left unless they were in the act of dying. Almost as suddenly as it started it stopped, the active call screen switching to a small ‘Missed Calls: 1’ notification.

 

**Ryuji - Today at 8:12**

hey are u ok?

i cant call u back until lunch, sorry   
  


He bit the inside of his lip. Ren  _ never _ called during class. What the  __ fuck.  
There wasn’t anything he could do about it except worry. Maybe he was worrying over nothing, despite the hole in his gut growing larger and threatening to send him into a fit of anxiety-laden shakes.  
_ It was nothing _ , he told himself.  __ A butt dial. Or maybe Morgana had done it as a prank. Or it was a ghost.  
Yeah, this wasn’t helping him calm down at all.  
He checked the messenger -- if it had been any of that, surely Ren would have sent something explaining? The ringing had stopped too early, so he must have cut it off.  
“Sakamoto.”  
“Shit,  __ ow! \-- sorry, um.” Ryuji ran his tongue over the bite he’d made in his cheek and winced both at the taste of blood and his vocal slip. “Yes, sorry sir.”  
Ushimaru sighed but otherwise ignored the outburst. “I only asked if you were feeling well. You look more troubled than usual.”  
“Oh, uh, yeah, sorry. I’m okay, just a little too hot.”  
“Well, enjoy the heat while it lasts. You’ll all be missing it in a few months.” This lead to a speech on climate and how it affected social life God only knows how long ago. Ryuji listened for a bit, to make sure attention was off of him, then opened his phone again. Nothing.  
With a defeated sigh, he slouched in his seat and looked out the window. The sky was still blue but dark clouds were looming in the far distance. Good, maybe some rain would ease his nerves.

Classes dragged on until finally,  _ fucking finally _ they were let out for lunch. As soon as Kawakami began packing her things Ryuji was up and out the door. He punched in Ren’s number, fingers shaking and making it harder than it should have been, as he meandered his way to the roof. The only person who would have been up there had graduated last year and he could easily chase off any first years who found themselves unlucky enough to barge in.  
Ren’s phone rang itself to voicemail. He hung up before the automated voice got two words in and immediately dialed again. This time he got an answer before the third ring. It was only when he stopped moving did he realize he’d been pacing.  
“Ryuji?”  
“Re - Morgana?”  __ What the fuck.  
“Dude! Ren called you  _ hours _ ago! Why didn’t you pick up?”  
“I was in class and I couldn’t exactly leave. Why did he call? Is everything okay?”  
“He  _ needed _ you, Ryuji.” The dark ball of panic reached his throat and he felt it tighten. Morgana sounded as close to tears as he’d ever heard him. “His dad -- Ren didn’t -- Just -- Can you drive yet? Can you come down here? Can  _ someone _ come down here?”  
“Morgana, calm down.” That was pretty funny, considering Ryuji felt like he was going to shake himself out of existence.  
“I can’t! I’m in this house alone and I can’t call anyone because I! Have! Paws! And Ren needs  _ someone _ to be here, he’s at the hospital and--”  
“Wait, hospital, what? Morgana, I swear to fuck if you don’t just tell me--” Ryuji broke off, terror accompanying the panic and threatening to empty his stomach. As he listened to Morgana explain he desperately wished he hadn’t eaten breakfast that morning.  
  
“Okay I’m... I’m going to call Sojiro. It’ll look too weird if I just leave now and I’ll probably be held up by cops or some shit. Besides, he has a car so he can get there faster.” He had gone back to pacing after he’d spat out as much of  __ whatever was left in his mouth. “I’ll tell the others too.”  
“Hurry,” was all he got in response. He felt a pang of sympathy for the cat. There wasn’t anything either of them could’ve done and they both knew that. Morgana probably felt more helpless since he was right there and still couldn’t have done a damn thing, and that was taken out as frustration on Ryuji. He couldn’t blame him. He wanted to scream until he hoarse, to bolt down the stairs, out the doors, to the station. To run until his lungs felt like they were on fire and his heart finally gave out. He supposed that if anyone had tried speaking to him at that moment he would turn on them and vent his feelings in the worst way himself.  
He couldn’t do that, though. There was a call he had to make, one that he needed to be at least a little bit calmer for. Two deep breaths and he found Leblanc’s number.  
“Cafe Leblanc, Sakura speaking.”   
“Boss, it’s Ryuji. I have some really bad news.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cold in more ways than one.

Several things happened that day that Sojiro Sakura was not expecting. One was the heat rising to well over twenty-six before he even opened Leblanc. Second was when Futaba to waltz in and announce that it was ‘Disconnect Day.’ For her this apparently only meant disconnecting from her computer and not her phone, but he would take what he could get. The third was when the cafe’s phone began ringing, something it hadn’t done more than twice since his daughter began venturing out of her room.

“Cafe Leblanc, Sakura speaking.”

Ryuji was on the other end and he sounded worried. That was odd, to say the least.

“I have some very bad news.”   
  


“Futaba, where are my keys?” Sojiro asked quietly as he hung up. He sat there, every negative emotion at once hitting him like a punch to the gut. And yet, he still felt empty inside, as if disgust and anger and despair weren’t fighting for dominance within. Futaba said something -- he didn’t quite catch what it was, everything sounded far away -- and dropped his car keys onto the bar. He picked them up and was halfway out the door before he realized he was about to lock Futaba in the cafe. “Come on, we’ve got an errand to run.”

“Oh, uh, okay? Do I need to bring anything...?” She scrambled out of her booth, worry etched on her face. He hated that. It was just going to cause wrinkles like his own when she got older but he didn’t have it in him to ease her at that moment.

As he stepped out of Leblanc, he noted with a twinge of smug satisfaction that the weather was turning sour as well. “A light jacket, maybe, but hurry.”   
  


Before long they had both settled into Sojiro’s car. Futaba looked up at him.

“Okay, so are you gonna explain anything or am I gonna have to beat it out of someone?” She said this with such confidence that he had to give a small chuckle.

“No, just let me gather my thoughts and I’ll explain. I would suggest sending the Sakamoto kid a message but I don’t think he could do it again.” He winced as the crease in her brow deepened. Maybe he should have kept quiet about Ryuji; she was already opening up the messenger app. “Seriously, don’t bother him. I’m actually surprised you don’t know already.”

At that, Futaba simply shrugged. “I promised everyone I wouldn’t bug their phones er, again. Not after last time.”

“Last time?”

“Haru and Makoto have both threatened to beat me into the ground if I so much as breathe a word.” She grinned. Sojiro sighed.

“Okay. Just. Listen to them, I guess.”

“So anyway, about where we’re going...” she prompted. And so he told her.   
  


It was deep in the afternoon when they pulled into a driveway. The house was neat, clean, and could almost pass as unlived in if not for the wilting flowers by the door. He wondered if they would fly away in the wind. They were planted in pots so Sojiro knew they wouldn’t, but they were small, tiny, fragile. Just a little bit of care and they would perk right back up. That was all that was needed, but he knew no one would do it.

“You got everything he needs?” was a question that got only a meow in response.

“Morgana says he’s all that’s needed.”

“Well, as soon as that cat turns into clothes, textbooks-”

“Does a bus count?”

“...No.”

They’d gotten lucky. Ren’s phone still had some charge on it so Futaba called and got the location of the spare key and the alarm passcode from Morgana. After that, it was just a matter of grabbing what they could find and what they thought was needed. Sojiro took stock of what they’d collected; two boxes of clothes, a schoolbag, a small handful of candy that was hidden around the room, a litterbox, and two cans of cat food. That should do him for a little while, at least until he settled back in.   
  


Sojiro hated hospitals. The smell of bleach, the too-polished floors that reflected far too many faces back up, the ever-present, ever-incoherent background noise. At least Takemi’s clinic back in Yongen-Jaya was cluttered and warm and quiet. At least it didn’t bring to mind blood and yelling and the image of a lonely young girl waiting for someone. For anyone.

“Looks like he’s in room number two-oh-three,” the receptionist said cheerfully as she took the visitor form back. “Are you family?”

Sojiro shook his head. “Just very close friends.” She gave him the visiting hours, general directions, and a small, bemused smile before waving him off. As he turned to the elevators he shooed Futaba off to the cafeteria. She hadn’t eaten and he didn’t want her to startle anyone. Besides, she had Morgana with her -- hidden in Ren’s bag, which she’d unceremoniously emptied in the trunk of the car -- and he wasn’t sure that the cat had eaten today either. And, if he was being honest with himself, he wanted to be just a little bit selfish for a while.   
  


In the end, he was glad Futaba wasn’t there.

He could feel his jaw slacken as he took in the sight -- one arm wrapped in gauze, palm to shoulder; a frame that once held lean muscle but could now barely boast skin; perhaps, worst of all, were the handprints that marred the uncovered side and wound their way up to Ren’s neck. They weren’t as nasty as the bruises he had come home with last November. They wouldn’t last as long, probably didn’t hurt as much, but they were worse, far worse, since they came from--

“Uh, Boss?”

Sojiro blinked back to the present and made his way to the bedside. He took it all in again, once, quickly. “What the hell happened to you, kid?” Ren shrugged, noncommittal. He still seemed to be focused on the sudden appearance of his former guardian.

“Fight at school. How did- Why are you here?”

“You have a loudmouth cat and a loudmouth boyfriend,” he said simply and offered no further explanation. “And don’t give me that ‘school fight’ bullshit. You make Kitagawa look chubby and there’s no bully on Earth who has that kind of magic.”

Sojiro suddenly wished that he had given Futaba enough money to get something for Ren, but hindsight was twenty-twenty. Besides, there was no stopping her as she sprinted into the room and practically launched herself onto the bed.

“Dude, you’re literally sitting on a PokeStop goldmine,” she declared as she nestled between Ren’s legs. “Look! That’s a fucking Dratini nest. You absolute fool, you could’ve been leveling up. Ess-em-aych.” He looked up pleadingly at Sojiro while Futaba continued rattling off the Pokemon she’d caught since arriving. There was, however, no rescue for him.

“Futaba, where’s the cat?” On cue, Morgana emerged from the bag still attached to his daughter and meowed gratefully. Sojiro almost broke down right then. The two most important people in the world to him were together again, playing some stupid game and trading quips with their cat. He could almost ignore where they were, what they looked like. It was almost normal.

\-------------

“Who the hell are you?”

_ shit shit shitshitshit he wasn’t supposed to come back today why was he here again?  _ Panic was all Ren felt. Panic and bile and  _ guilt _ oh god Futaba and Sojiro were here. He slipped out behind Futaba, stood, and bowed. Maybe if he was a little extra formal then-

“Sit down,” his father ordered, giving him a look of utter contempt. Ren sat back down, biting back anything he was about to say. What could he have said, though?  _ hey pops fancy meetin’ you back here, hahaha, say why doesn’t futaba go get us some drinks and we can all chat about why there are strangers in my room and why they brought my fucking cat whom you love and cherish almost as much as you do your son.  _ Fat chance that’d go over well. Sojiro cleared his throat and both Ren and his father turned back to him.

“We’d heard that Ren was in the hospital and merely wanted to stop by and see how he was doing. I’m Sojiro Sakura and this is my daughter, Futaba.”

“Sakura? So the family she was staying with last year, then.” The reply was accompanied by an outstretched hand. “Genkei Amamiya.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :^) I really love hospitals can u tell

**Author's Note:**

> Hooo man. I haven't posted anything since I was like... 16. Oh man. Oh MAN. Thank you for reading this and hopefully you're looking forward to more!


End file.
